With 1 million m2 area, 148 countries and 20 million expected visitors over 6 months, the Expo is just like a small crowded city and an ideal living lab for innovations. Two EIT Digital supported innovations (ExplorMI 360 and cityOmeters) are currently used there. What are they?

Gilles Betis, Urban Life and Mobility Action Line Leader at EIT Digital, presenting the trusted digital ecosystem built around Expo.

3cixty is a platform for building applications that help visitors to compare and combine information about events, places and transport in a city like never before. "The name is a play on words between 360° and city" said Anthony Jameson. The applications are built on a knowledge base that integrates official data sources, social media and other web content.

ExplorMI 360, the first major 3cixty application, was developed to get the most out of the Expo and the city of Milan. For example, you want to visit the Japanese pavilion but the waiting line is more than 2 hours long. You decide to be the first at the right entrance gate opening, run across Expo and be the first in the line. You need to stay close, the night before. ExplorMI 360 shows you the different entrance gates and the hotels nearby, so as to give you a chance to see the pavilion (see HERE).

The application is available on the Web, which includes links to mobile apps on Google Play Store and App Store. It is also deployed on the tablets available inside the Expo.

CityOmeters, a product of Fluxedo, gives municipalities and city-scale event managers accurate visualisation and measurement of the city pulse from different real time data streams, such as social media, mobile telephone usage statistics, app usage statistics, IoT sensors etc.

Thanks to a cooperation with Politecnico di Milano, at Expo Gate, social media activity among visitors is shown on a map of the Expo area. On the Web, a live infographic shows in real-time Twitter and Instagram social activity at Expo and Milan.

Social media activity among Expo visitors presented at Expo Gate

ProtoWorld is an interactive simulation tool that allows mobility stakeholders to collaborate in envisioning new mobility strategies and experimenting with different scenarios in a realistic 3D environment. "Proto-World is the most recent common ancestor of all the World's languages" reminded Jop van den Hoogen, PhD candidate at TU Delft, presenting the tool of the same name.

ProtoWorld realistic 3D simulation tool screen shot

This solution could help events organisers in reducing long waiting time at the gates by simulating the flows of visitors, depending on transports means and the time of the day, both before and during an event, such as Expo.

FlashPoll is a mobile application for public institutions, administrations and government to interact with their citizens through short polls on their mobile phones depending on their location and in an anonymous way.

In the special case of big events, this application could be embedded in official applications. The organizers can take quick feedbacks from the visitors about transports, gates, access information, food etc. It helps continuously increasing satisfaction during an event, such as Expo.

The above innovations are all made with education, research and industry partners such as Thales, DFKI, Eurecom, Telecom Italia, KTH, Politecnico di Milano, TU Delft, Siemens gathered and supported by EIT Digital in the Urban Life and Mobility Action Line.

Adam Woolway, PlugSurfing CEO

Eventually, EIT Digital presented also its coached startup PlugSurfing, an application and billing system that empower electric car drivers to find and use charging points wherever they are and whenever they want, with a single billing interface. "By 2020, there will be 10 M electric vehicles" said Adam Woolway, PlugSurfing CEO. Ideal along your journey, if you plan to go to the next Expos by electric car!

Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove

At the end of the presentations, the sociologist Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove wrapped up by pointing out 3 fundamental trends underlying these innovations that should be kept in mind for the next ones.

- We are definitely going from a very individualised society to a community centred one. - With expanding data, privacy should be by design. - Visual language is a common language.

Nice innovations, exciting Expo living lab and good food for thought. More to come!